When! This small word becomes most significant the moment it points to the most important fact in one's life.

  Now I know that God had been seeking me all my life while I tried, in vain, to hide from Him, and, what is worse, I thought I was the one that sought after God, with the means and measures of man!

  Today I am in a position to have a more concrete and definite knowledge of the facts, and recognize the traces of God in my life before my conversion;  traces that finally led my heart to beat at the rhythm of the great truth that Jesus is the only Savior and no one can come to the Father except by Him.

  Growing up in a worldly family I followed our traditional religion which I thought to be the only true one, given the fact that that was the State Church of my country. However, at a very early age I came face to face with the death of a person that was dearest to me. That made me think of the hereafter. I realized that man is something more than the physical body which returns to the earth of which it was formed. I thought of the inescapable reality of another element in man that is immaterial, incorruptible, immortal.

  With my spirit upset because of these thoughts I lived the few next years in some other country, with studies, work etc., where I came to realize that religion is a strictly personal matter and has nothing to do with the country in which one is born and brought up, nor with its customs and traditions. The Lord Who knew my quests led me to churches and people who knew Him and witnessed to me about Jesus. Thus I had taken the first step. Now my mind and reason were clearly telling me what was the right way of getting saved, but still my heart remained untouched.

  Then upon returning to Greece, the Lord brought me in touch with born-again believers, opened my heart to receive the truths my mind had already accepted years before, and led me to the Cross of Calvary where, at Jesus' feet, I abandoned everything that was mine, ideas, thoughts, theories and beliefs, and trusted Christ as my personal Savior. An indescribable joy and assurance filled my heart, as I became God's child and heir of eternal life through Him.

  Since then God speaks to me through the preaching of His word, through my personal reading and studying of the same, and, of course, through circumstances; through hardships and afflictions, so necessary to one's spiritual growth. Other times He speaks to me through wonderful interventions (should I call them miracles!?), such as the one I experienced just recently; blessed be His holy name!

  I thank my Lord for finding me; for taking me out of a lost condition, saving me and adding me to His blessed Church, even to this local church, which honors Him by preaching the whole truth of the Bible and practicing brotherly love in a warm spiritual family of believers. Now I am so happy to know the Lord saved me and gave me the greatest gift man can receive and enjoy down here on earth: Heaven! Glory to His name! Rendered in English by Markos Boussios.

Teresa Karadimitriou

Nov.09, 2008